The explosion of the Internet and the World Wide Web has ushered in an era of unprecedented integration of technology and people. A resounding “yes” to the question of “are you connected” reflects the ubiquitous permeation of the online experience round the globe. Grandparents can now monitor their grandchildren continents apart over the Internet. Individuals to governments to industrial conglomerates all tap into a supply chain infrastructure wrapped around the world many times over, all glued together through Internet technology.
A chain reaction from this explosion is a parallel boom in the head-numbing choices in Internet-related devices and applications people have access to, everything from digital computers to hand-held devices to wearable computing to things that think (Things That Think Consortium headed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab) and their related applications.
The concept of separation of content from form has become the defacto standard solution in Internet technology to the challenge of enabling the exchange of information over the Internet through this multitude of devices and applications. Related to interfaces, form means the “look and feel” of an interface while content means the data delivered through the “look and feel”. The online dictionary at www.m-w.com defines form as, “the shape and structure of something as distinguished from its material”, or “the essential nature of a thing as distinguished from its matter.” The “material” and “matter” refer to the content. Not long ago Mosaic was the only graphic user interface to the Internet, and static HTML pages represented the sole source which delivers both the form and the content to users through a graphic user interface over the Internet.
No longer do graphic designers need to understand database API and vice versa, at least in principle. The separation and componentization of, and therefore the efficient utilization of non-overlapping expertise are what separating content and form intends to bring.